Ricky Moore is a James Beard Award-winning chef and the owner of the popular North Carolina restaurant Saltbox Seafood Joint. Moore is a native of North Carolina’s coast, where catching and eating fresh fish and shellfish is a way of life.
Moore was introduced to German cooking at young age, when his family was stationed overseas, and later from his German mother-in-law. He spent a decade as a cook in the U.S. Army before earning a degree from the Culinary Institute of America.
Moore went on to work in some of the world’s most prestigious kitchens, including Le Tarbouche, IndeBleu, Vidalia, Lespinasse, Equinox, Agraria (now called Founding Farmers) in Washington, DC, and Frontera Grill, Charlie Trotter’s, and Tru in Chicago. Moore also served as Executive chef and Instructor at the Parrot Cage Restaurant in the Washburne Culinary Institute, and Executive Chef of South Water Kitchen.
In 2012, Moore opened Saltbox Seafood Joint in Durham, North Carolina, and published the Saltbox Seafood Joint Cookbook in 2019. In 2020, Saltbox Seafood Joint won $25,000 as part of Discover’s #EatItForward campaign for Black-owned restaurants. Saltbox Seafood Joint is also included in MOFAD’s Black History Month exhibit “African/American: Making the Nation’s Table.”
